Earned it.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

RTMT: The Emperor is not wearing any exposition...

Pained

Hans Christian Andersen wrote The Emperor's New Clothes--it's a simple tale of vanity, deception, and truth-seeking, and more importantly, truth-telling. This morning, I am feeling somewhat gypped. An alternative title should be "My Parents Went to Theramore and All I Got Was This Lousy Tabard."

Please do not read if you are afraid of accidentally clicking on spoilers. Please do not read any further if you think I have nothing valid to say. I may not. I just know there was something I was really looking forward to, allowed myself to get swept up in the moment, and then, like seeing Cinderella smoking behind the castle's bleachers or Mickey yelling at Minnie, I feel there is a bit of a let-down here. Many players put the Blizzard writers on pedestals, and let's just say I think they phoned this one in.

Tzufit took the words right out of my own mouth with her post on the Theramore scenario:

Pure and simple, the story of this scenario makes absolutely no sense without having readTides of War. Blizzard is no stranger to forcing us to go outside of the game for the full story about most major lore developments, but we usually have enough pieces of the puzzle given to us in-game that we can get a decent clue as to what’s going on. --Theramore Disaster

Have the creatives and developers at Blizzard became too lazy when it comes to delivering on lore promises? Do they depend too much on their loyal followers to fill in the gaps? Or maybe, and this is giving them a boatload of credit, perhaps they just want us to read a damn book once in awhile? I have often commented that novels-to-movies are always more satisfying, nay, solely satisfying, if one has read the book first. Good movies from novels enhance the novel, but each medium does have its limitations. I just think Blizzard went a bit too far with this one. It could have been shokewl.

Lucky for me I still have my inner sense of storytelling, and although I couldn't save Theramore, or Lt. Aden, or anyone else, I can save the enjoyment of the game. Furthermore, I remind myself of my own creative beliefs: We craft the world we choose, or choose the worlds we craft.

Well, poop Tome. I am sorry. I wish I could have put a blinder on this post--but what I said at the end was true: what kept me engaged is what always does -- I have the narrative track in my own noggin, and fill in the blanks for myself. I just wish sometimes Blizz didn't expect us players to do all the heavy lifting, and this was one of those moments. Yesterday I stopped and really looked at Jaina: I won't say anymore, cause I know you'll look at her, too.

No, it's fine. I'm pretty easily pleased. I should have realized that a scenario wouldn't be on the scale of the past pre-expansion events. And then I remember all the yelling and screaming at Blizzard when the zombie event occurred. They even relented and stopped it early if I remember. They are pretty much damned if they do and damned if they don't. I really liked those zombies, lol.